Here's an 'intresting' devolopment on the discourse on doctors asking about your guns.........

September 15th, 2011, 08:42 AM

Hiram25

It interferes with your right to keep and own arms if he is recording his information and then makes that information available to the government. What happend to your right to privacy with your medical records?

September 15th, 2011, 09:00 AM

Arborigine

Why would anyone answer questions so off the topic in a Doctors office? I would tell him its none of his GD business, and ask if he has pictures of his wife, naked. Wanna buy some?

September 15th, 2011, 09:22 AM

ChrisMia

I don't see what the fuss is about. If you read the article, there's no singling out of firearms here - the inquiry about gun ownership is but one part of a battery of questions asked typically of patients with small children, and it's to make the parent patients aware of potential hazards to their children: unfenced swimming pools, unsecured guns, chemical cleaning products stored under sinks where kids can get them, etc. There's nothing anti-gun about asking parents about potentially dangerous situations in the house that can be a threat to their kids. If anything, I'd expect it would facilitate a greater awareness of safe gun handling/storage in these households - sounds like a positive thing to me.

September 15th, 2011, 10:10 AM

Stubborn

Morning Chris, I don't know how closely you have followed this case? It really all started with Doctors asking minor children NOT in the presence of their parents "if mommy and daddy have guns in the house".
Not in an ER setting, but during "well child" and vaccination visits. There were even reports of Doctors refusing care if the children were from "gun owning" homes, again not in ER settings. There have been several "head-butting" sessions on DC over this topic.
One that comes to mind...http://www.defensivecarry.com/forum/...y-doctors.html

September 15th, 2011, 10:14 AM

atctimmy

Quote:

Originally Posted by ChrisMia

I don't see what the fuss is about. If you read the article, there's no singling out of firearms here - the inquiry about gun ownership is but one part of a battery of questions asked typically of patients with small children, and it's to make the parent patients aware of potential hazards to their children: unfenced swimming pools, unsecured guns, chemical cleaning products stored under sinks where kids can get them, etc. There's nothing anti-gun about asking parents about potentially dangerous situations in the house that can be a threat to their kids. If anything, I'd expect it would facilitate a greater awareness of safe gun handling/storage in these households - sounds like a positive thing to me.

The problem with these questions is that it can and HAS led to other things. People have fears about where that information will go once it gets put into your no longer private medical file. Many insurance providers are rabidly anti gun. Folks are concerned about what unintended consequences their answers may cause. Also, very soon, if not already, the Government will be involved in the health insurance business.

September 15th, 2011, 11:53 AM

Hopyard

Quote:

Originally Posted by atctimmy

The problem with these questions is that it can and HAS led to other things. People have fears about where that information will go once it gets put into your no longer private medical file. Many insurance providers are rabidly anti gun. Folks are concerned about what unintended consequences their answers may cause. Also, very soon, if not already, the Government will be involved in the health insurance business.

I think a dose of serious realism needs to be injected here. Not only do people have legitimate fears about what information will leak from a medical file and to whom, but we live in an age, and with electronic devices, which spreads information in unpredictable ways.

Now, here's an example of how things get around in our modern world and why I personally think electronic medical records are dangerous.

The stuff gets around. I have a niece who lives in Australia. Her husband is not on any of my or my wife's contact lists. She does not use his name. Last week we got a phone book in the mail with an address label-- in the form: John Doe @ xxxx. city, state.

The name on the address label belonged to my wife's niece's husband, who lives in a different country on a different continent, and never lived in our home, never visited here either.

Some data aggregater somewhere, somehow picked up pieces of information and put them together, but did so incorrectly. A computer somewhere associated his name with our address, darned if I can see how, but it happened.

There is no doubt in my mind that someone sold AT&T a mailing list compiled by some computer skimming the net for information.

Living in a world such as this, none of our private information is truly safe. Our information is never secure.

The answer I think is not in forbidding the collection of information, but in severely punishing the inappropriate dissemination of information and the misuse of information gathered for purposes other than that for which it was collected in the first place.

September 15th, 2011, 12:09 PM

BadgerJ

Tell the doctor you'll answer him if he'll disclose the number of sponges he's left in the patient he's operated on or how many successful malpractice suits he's fought and lost, and if he ever killed a patient by prescribing the wrong amount of medication. Sort of a CarFAX report on the doctor...

I mean it's for the children, right?

Chances are he will move on to other questions.

September 15th, 2011, 12:12 PM

dukalmighty

Can't wait til some kid replies no they don't have guns ,running a meth lab is bad enough,but if they get caught with guns and drugs its an enhanced penalty

September 15th, 2011, 12:21 PM

noway2

I would tell them that it is NYOFB and refuse to answer any sort of question, that is unless we are discussing them being guilty of malpractice.

Asking children questions when a parent is not in the room, could be a real problem and in ways beyond guns issues. While I don't have children, if I did, I would be loath to leave them alone with a doctor or anyone else for that matter and not just because of what they might (or not) say. Remember, priests are suppose to be the "good guys" too.

September 15th, 2011, 01:02 PM

beni

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hiram25

It interferes with your right to keep and own arms if he is recording his information and then makes that information available to the government. What happend to your right to privacy with your medical records?

Then that Medical Professional is violating HIPPA and you should sue him for all that he owns.

September 15th, 2011, 01:12 PM

azchevy

Quote:

Originally Posted by ChrisMia

I don't see what the fuss is about. If you read the article, there's no singling out of firearms here - the inquiry about gun ownership is but one part of a battery of questions asked typically of patients with small children, and it's to make the parent patients aware of potential hazards to their children: unfenced swimming pools, unsecured guns, chemical cleaning products stored under sinks where kids can get them, etc. There's nothing anti-gun about asking parents about potentially dangerous situations in the house that can be a threat to their kids. If anything, I'd expect it would facilitate a greater awareness of safe gun handling/storage in these households - sounds like a positive thing to me.

Do they ask you if you have a car? Cars are dangerous. What about a pair of scissors? A toaster? they cause house fires......

September 15th, 2011, 01:42 PM

ChrisMia

Quote:

Originally Posted by azchevy

Do they ask you if you have a car? Cars are dangerous. What about a pair of scissors? A toaster? they cause house fires......

I don't buy that analogy. Out of the four things you mentioned, tell me which is the only one inherently dangerous by design . . .

But that's beside the point. Statistically speaking, I would venture to say that parental negligence as it relates to swimming pools and firearms cause more injuries to children than scissors and toasters. Not saying that the problem is the pool or the gun - still a parental negligence problem. At the end of the day I think the point is to remind parents to be vigilant about keeping common household hazards from injuring their kids or worse. It's not, "are there guns in your house? Yes? Well then, you need to get rid of those guns, I can't see you if you have guns in your house, you're an irresponsible parent," etc. Even responsible people can use occasional reminders about proper safeguarding practices - why else do we share videos and stories of ND's and the like here? OMO/YMMV

Like I said before, I think the discussion can help facilitate greater awareness of safe storage and ownership practices. It's easy for people like us who carry and are more "into" our ownership to lose sight of it, but there are millions of Americans who buy a gun for home protection and think that just owning it will be good enough. There's a startling lack of familiarity among such folks, who are also often the types that don't put any range time in, or maintain their weapons, or store them properly (or safely). Of course, situations where insurance companies try to deny coverage to such households and the like are a different story.

September 15th, 2011, 01:50 PM

azchevy

Doctors have no business in anyone personal business. Fix what's ailing me and STFU about it, you are getting paid. There is no reason to get into a free man's business.... unless of course you are a socialist and think it is ok. Every American has the right to keep and bear arms and it is not your business or anyone elses to tell them why, when, or how to do so.

September 15th, 2011, 02:01 PM

bigmacque

The thing that still bothers me is how did this even become a topic for discussion? Prior to being asked to do so by outside influences, no doctor even thought about asking you about guns in your household. So who brought it up and asked the doc's to start asking? I don't like either of the two answers to that question that I can come up: the gov or the insurance industry.